Skip to main content

tv   Starting Point  CNN  October 4, 2012 4:00am-6:00am PDT

4:00 am
>> i think the american people have to ask themselves, is the reason governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? >> what we're seeing right now in my view is a trickle-down govement approach which thinks that government can do a better job than free people pursuing their dreams. >> it's thursday, october 4th, and "starting point" begins right now. >> good morning! welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning is the morning after debate night in america. both candidates are on the campaign trail today, again, after the first of three presidential debates, the first one, of course, in denver last night. president obama and mitt romney going toe to toe on critical issues, like the economy and health care. and by most accounts, it was mitt romney who emerged the victor. lots of debate analysis ahead on "starting point." we'll be talking live with john mccain of arizona and rand paul
4:01 am
of kentucky. from team obama, we'll be speaking with martin o'malley and campaign spokeswoman, jen psaki. plus, obama's former economic adviser, austan goolsbee. first, though, a look at the instant reaction from the debate in the cnn/orc poll, of debate watchers taken right after the debate, 67% say they think romney won. 25% only thought the president won. cnn's dana bash joins us this morning to go over some of the hits and some of the misses. good morning. >> good morning. well, i'm here in new york, so maybe we should talk about what happens, how you get to carnegie hall, practice, practice, practice. and is that clearly is what helped the mitt romney. he spent a lot of time practicing, really for the past month doing these mock debates. and when it comes to the president, he was rusty. right out of the gate, it was clear. mitt romney came to play. >> the president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago. that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more. if you will, trickle-down government, would work.
4:02 am
a >> reporter: president obama sounded a familiar alarm, warning of romney's "been there, done that" economics. >> the approach that governor romney is talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003. and we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years. >> reporter: but whether it was health care, jobs, or medicare, it was romney who stood out for his aggressive style. >> i just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for obama care. >> reporter: the president made his points in a slower, more laid-back manner, often looking down, sometimes appearing disengaged. it's not that he didn't try to rip apart romney's economic plan. >> that kind of top-down economics, where folks at the top are doing well, so the average person making 3 million bucks is getting a $250,000 tax break, while middle class
4:03 am
families are burdened further. >> reporter: romney was determined to go toe to toe. >> but virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate. >> all right. go ahead. >> so if the tax plan he described were a tax plan i was asked to support, i would say, absolutely not. >> reporter: the president did get digs in. >> for 18 months, he's been running on this tax plan. and now, five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big, bold idea is, never mind. >> reporter: but he also showed flashes of the kind of testiness sources in both camps feared from their candidates, except obama's was directed a the moderator, not romney. >> the last point i'd make, before -- >> two minutes is up, sir. >> no, i think i had five seconds before you interrupted me, was -- >> reporter: romney did have his own awkward moderator moment. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i like pbs, i love big bird, i actually like you too. >> reporter: one of the most surprising parts of the president's performance was what
4:04 am
he did not say. no mention of romney's infamous 47% remark, no talk of bain capital, nothing about romney's own taxes. he did play the "romney is a hypocrite" card when it comes to health care. >> the irony is that we've seen this model work really well. in massachusetts. because governor romney did a good thing, working with democrats in the state to set up what is essentially the identical model and, as a consequence, people are covered there. it hasn't destroyed job. >> reporter: romney, who ran from his massachusetts health care plan during the gop primaries, now used it to tack to the middle for the general election. >> i like the way we did it in massachusetts. i like the fact that in my state, we had republicans and democrats come together and work together. what you did, instead, was to push through a plan without a single republican vote. >> reporter: and romney's countless hours of rehearsals clearly produced lines like
4:05 am
this. >> mr. president, you're entitled as a president to your own airplane and your own house, but not to your own facts. >> now, you can say what you will about this. democrats, some of them, at least, are trying to spin that it wasn't as bad as others are saying. but one thing you can say, soledad, is that this was a very substantiative debate. we've had a lot of talk about how these are very important times, but this is a campaign about nothing, but this debate wasn't, and you come away if you watch the whole thing understanding not all the facts and whether they're right, but these are two men with very clearly different philosophies. >> and they keep saying, we each have a very different direction we want to take the country in. this is the first time we've actually had them lay out specifically their plan. there was some fact checking. john was heavily involved in that. and some fixing of the facts. we'll talk more about that later. dana, thank you very much. several more debates, of course, are ahead. next up is the battle of the number twos. vice president biden and congressman paul ryan will face
4:06 am
off on october 11th in danville, kentucky. it's going to be their only debate. october 16th will be the second presidential debate. that will be moderated by our own candy crowley in hempstead, long island. and the third and final encounter between president obama and governor romney will take place on october 22nd. and that one will be in boca raton in florida. john berman has a look at some of the other stories that are making news this morning. what you got? violence is escalate look the border between syria and turkey. tensions flare along that border as syrian forces shell turkey overnight. turk forces have been shelling syria back. five civilians were killed in a turkish border town. three children were among those killed. syria has apologized for the incident. government officials in turkey saying they have no interest in a war with their neighbor. the fbi turning to facebook and twitter to find a wanted terrorist. they believe boston native ahmad
4:07 am
abousamra is wanted to help track terrorists. the city's police commissioner says lieutenant jonathan josey will be suspended for 30 days with intent to dismiss after he served that suspension, he punched the woman last weekend during philadelphia's puerto rican parade. the video has been viewed now more than a million times. detroit tigers slugger miguel cabrera celebrating the rarest defeats this morning. a triple crown. he finished the season leading the american league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. the last player to win a triple crown was boston's carl yastrzemski. the new wild card format setting up a wild finish to baseball's regular season. the new york yankees, they beat the boston red sox last night, 14-2, to clinch the american league east title for the 14th time in 17 years. whoopty doo. and the a's win the division
4:08 am
with a 12-5 victory over the texas rangers yesterday. it is playoff time in baseball, soledad. >> yes, it is. and my kids were so happy about that. watching the yankees game. i'm sorry, you don't root for the yankees, do you? which team do you root for? >> as i said, whoopty doo. >> oh, right, the red sox. sorry. sorry for mentioning. back to our starting point this morning. we showed you the poll of debate watchers who overwhelmingly believe that mitt romney won the debate last night. will those numbers, though, have a lasting impact. this morning from denver, martin o'malley. he's an obama surrogate. nice to see you, sir. thank you for talking with us. >> thank you, soledad. good to be with you. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. last night, in addition to some of that polling that we've just been showing, cnn/orc did a poll of folks who were watching the debate. and what we saw was a slew of improvements in the polling for government romney. who would better handle the deficit? romney went up 16%.
4:09 am
who would handle the economy? romney gained 12 points over president obama. taxes, romney was ahead by nine points. health care, romney was ahead by five points. i would mention, the sampling error is almost five points there. but still, in virtually every single question, it was the governor romney who, among people who saw the debate, they felt that he was now ahead in the polls that flowed. what do you make of those very devastating numbers for the president? >> i think that governor romney is certainly a skilled debater. and last night he was able to elevate his level of performance. but he did not change the fundamental dynamics of this race, nor did he change some of the policies that actually got us into the economic mess that we have. he embraced the president and agreed that, in fact, he does want to turn medicare into a voucher program, and he still skated and danced and tap danced around how it is that he's going
4:10 am
to cut tax for millionaires and billionaires without that having an impact on the rest of the budget. and that's still a question that he has to answer. i thought the president's best moment in the debate was when he contrasted the two economic approaches. president obama is much more ke keeping with president clinton. it's a balanced approach. and mitt romney is still waving around the magic wand, that if you cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, that grows jobs rather than deficits. and we know that's not true. so he did have an elevated level of debate. and fortunately, we have a few more rounds. >> well, i'll tell you, i'll use the word skated and danced and tap danced, but those are not the adjectives that people who watched the debate, frankly, on both sides of the aisle, that were using. they felt that governor romney was aggressive, assertive, and came to play. sort of the opposite for president obama. are you worried that people who did not see the debate, which will be the majority, maybe the majority of the people who will now be voters going to the
4:11 am
polls, that this will affect them as well? that, you know, this means a big change in poll numbers, which have of late been favoring the president? >> i don't believe that you'll see a fundamental change in the dynamics of this race. and i believe the big question that still needs to be answered is governor romney's so-called plan that he won't let anyone see about how it is that he can cut taxes and revenues by $4 trillion or $5 trillion, and somehow, tell us to just trust him, because behind door number three, there's a secret plan, he can't tell us about it until after the election is over. i think that was a blank that he was not able to fill in last night. there were high expectations that he would be specific about that, and instead he skated around it, soledad. so i think you still have the fundamental challenge here. it's easy for governor romney to say, that's not actually in my plan, because governor romney hasn't really been forthcoming about his plan, about what it will mean for middle class families and how he makes up
4:12 am
that money without hurting our economy, slowing it, or hurting middle class families. >> governor, let me ask dana bash who's sitting with me a quick question. i think a lot of people have been pointing out missed opportunities. the 47% never mentioned, bain capital never mentioned. all these things that were in the ads from the obama campaign were actually never mentioned. the $716 billion number, which governor romney mentioned, was never debunked and it had been debunked many times before. he didn't bring up the governor's taxes or talk about immigration policies. big impact, i would think, of those misses in this debate. >> that's why i'm listening to the governor talking about skating and dancing around the questions, you might argue that president obama skated and danced around what he needed to do. because this wasn't just a serious of speeches. this was a debate. they were supposed to engage one another. and i can't imagine that the governor isn't dispointed that the president wasn't more aggressive in sayinsaying, okay governor romney, what are the specifics is?
4:13 am
how are you going to reform the tax code? >> there was a quote from a james carville, governor, who, of course, is a big obama supporter, and basically his assessment was, the president was just not sharp. here's what he said. let's play that. >> i had one overwhelming impression. i did everything i could not to reach it, but i had to reach it. it looked like romney wanted to be there and president obama didn't want to be there. he seemed like he was happy to be there, debating, and president obama gave you the impression that this whole thing was kind of a lot of trouble. the president didn't bring his a-game. >> do you think that's true? and if so, what happened? and is it as simple as a lack of practice, as some have posited? >> well, i think this campaign is the product of many days. and this was the first day that was not a disastrous and miserable day for the romney campaign in many, many weeks. so soledad, i mean, tomorrow, or rather, today is a new day, and everybody wakes up, when we go back for the last 35, 236 days f
4:14 am
this campaign. so i tnk that what you have to look at in the course of a campaign is not any one day or any one performance. i've been in these debates, and always, it seems, that the challenger has an edge in that very first debate. he's on the stage with the incumbent, so there's always a certain overcoming of the low expectations for the challenger. but there's still two more rounds coming up in these debates. and most important, governor romney's economic prescription for what ails us as a country has been proven to fail in the past and we did not hear one new idea about creating jobs. we heard no specifics about how he pays for all of this stuff. he tells us, look, we can all eat cake and lose weight. trust me, i've got a secret plan behind door number two. that's going to wear old with intelligent voters over the course of these next debates. >> governor martin o'malley this morning, thank you, sir, for talking with us.
4:15 am
we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> there'll be another opportunity for governor romney and president obama face off. we'll rerun it right here at 1:00 p.m. on cnn. and republican senator john mccain of arizona and rand paul of kentucky will be joining me live. also, obama campaign spokeswoman, jen psaki, and the president's former economic adviser, austan goolsbee, will be my guest straight ahead. and kitchenaid doing some serious damage control. apparently tweeted out an offensive joke about the president's grandmother. what they're doing to try to fix that this morning. and the moment that's gone viral from the debate, big bird! the comment from governor romney has "sesame street" fans enraged. "starting point" is back in just a moment. stay with us. >> happy to be a bird! a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive.
4:16 am
meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee. which is what you get, don't you see? cause c-max has lots more horsepower than prius v, a hybrid that c-max also bests in mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid. check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip,
4:17 am
crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic.
4:18 am
4:19 am
welcome back to "starting point." i'm alison kosik and i'm minding your business. stock futures in the u.s. are up, indicating futures will open higher this morning. the jobless claims are expected to show that there's more evidence of weakness in the jobs market. a new report shows that people are saving more and borrowing less to pay down credit card debt. plus, credit card delinquencies are at their lowest level in 11 years. the report from the american banker's association says only 2.93% of bank card accounts were 30 days or more overdue in the second quarter. and home appliance maker kitchenaid is apologizing this morning for a political tweet they sent out during the debate last night. the tweet about the president's grandmother read -- look at this, "obama's grandmother even knew it was going to be bad. she died three days before he became president." the company wrote on twitter, "deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in
4:20 am
no way a representation of the brand's opinion." the tweet has since been removed. a big oops, huh, soledad? >> it was somebody on the twitter team for kitchenaid who tweeted that from the company handle instead of their own personal handle. >> it's amazing how even somebody who may work for kitchenaid feels like they can hide behind the anonymity of twitter. and i see this every day. i've got a twitter account. everybody hides behind the anonymity and say whatever they want, even the hateful stuff. >> cynthia soledad said, we're deeply sorry. no relation. a whopping two-thirds of the people who were watching the debate last night said they felt that mitt romney won the debate, 42 points above president obama. and the first time a candidate has pulled over 60% since this particular question was asked in polling starting back in the 1984. it was largely due, that sense of winning, to attacks like this.
4:21 am
>> $1 trillion deficits for the last four years. the president's put in place as much public debate, almost as much debt held by the public as all prior presidents combined. and the proof of that is 23 million people out of work. the proof of that is one out of six people in poverty. the proof of that is we've gone from 32 million on food stamps to 47 million on food stamps. you're entitled as a president to your own airplane and your own house, but not to your own facts. >> mark mckinnon was a former contributor for the daily beast, the 2008 campaign adviser. thanks for talking with us. >> good morning. >> last time we spoke, you said this. "i thought the debates would be an opportunity" -- oh, we were talking about your column from the daily beast and this is what you had written in your column. "i thought the debates would be an opportunity, but he" -- you're talking about mitt romney here, "has dug his hole so deeply now, i don't know if he
4:22 am
can pull himself out. does he get up and say, i was just kidding. i don't see half of america as victim i just needed to raise some money and i got a little carried away talking to the 1%." how would you write that now? >> well, fortunately, he didn't even get asked that question about the 47%. the fun thing for all of us watching, covering this race, is it's interesting once again. and i'm struck by the polling numbers. i've never seen a debate as decisive as the one last night. so we all knew that it had to be -- he had to hit it out of the park, and he hit it out of the park. he really did. it reminds me of 2000. i've talked about that before. i said we were down three going into the debates, and as a result the debates, president bush came out on top. but it also reminded me of 2004 when president bush was the incumbent president and had a terrible performance, which was very much like president obama's. and it's very hard for an
4:23 am
incumbent president to go in against a challenger and be attacked and president obama showed it last night. >> yeah, if you look at some of these nouumbers, i'm going to lk at them right now. as you say, it was decisive, 67% in polling picked mitt romney as a winner, obama at 25%. when they asked debate watchers, did romney do better or worse than expected, 82% said he did better. when asked, who seemed to be a stronger leader, it was mitt romney at 58%. he also won when it was asked about who was more likable, mitt romney came at 46% to obama's 45%. so do all of these numbers translate specifically into closing that gap for mitt romney, and maybe closing the gap in these key swing states, which everyone keeps talks about, will be where those critical voters are? >> no question that it will. i mean, there was a little bit of tightening before the debate
4:24 am
and as i said, in my professional career in politics of 30 years, i've never seen a debate performance this decis e decisive. it's absolutely going to have an impact. there were lots of people watching who really didn't know mitt romney. they know obama, but they just heard a lot about mitt romney. and they saw a completely different person last night. they saw a guy in control, a guy who shared their values, a guy that they could trust. you know, all those sorts of attributes that people are looking for in a president, they saw in mitt romney last night. >> hey, mark, it's john berman here. it does appear the results of this debate were very decisive, wide agreement on that. but if there's some silver lining, i've rewatched this debate almost three times since last night, playing again and again and again. there's not one awful moment for barack obama. there's not one defining sound bite for mitt romney that's being replayed, that people who missed the debate will see, oh, my gosh, that's what he's talking about, he won. i think what people might be hearing today is just the media saying, romney won big. but is there a moment that says
4:25 am
that for itself? >> you know, you're right, john, there's not a standout moment that is going to be replayed by the press, but what is being replayed by the press is there was an absolute dominating performance and that's going to seep into the water well. and people are going to be talking about it and their going to be saying, you know, my god, this guy who we were writing off a couple of weeks ago is suddenly back in the hunt. you know, took on the president and demolished him. not even a close call. how many debates have we seen, and it's so temporary that you really see somebody have an outstanding performance like this where they really dominate. it just never happens. and we saw it last night. so i think it's absolutely going to have an impact and tighten this race up. >> mark mckinnon, always nice to see you. thank you for talking with us. we appreciate it. >> you bet, thanks. while the debate was unfolding, americans were googling. between 8:45 and 10:45 p.m., the number one google search was
4:26 am
simpson/bowles. number two, dodd/frank. number three was, "who is winning the debate?" and number four was big bird. why big bird? because of this particular moment in the debate. listen. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i'm going to stop other things. i like pbs, i love big bird, i actually like you too. but i'm not going to keep spending money on things to borrow money from china to pay for it. >> mentions of big bird spiked by almost 800,000% after that and even inspired a new twitter account of big bird with a "will work for food" sign. still ahead, both candidates threw out a lot of numbers last night. but were those numbers accurate? john berman is fact checking both sides for us coming up next. the "starting point" team is coming in to talk about that. hey, guys. good morning. yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber.
4:27 am
chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one. it's called passion. and it's not letting up anytime soon. at unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. so does aarp, serving americans 50 and over for generations. so it's no surprise millions have chosen an aarp dicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. to find out more, call today.
4:28 am
and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well.
4:29 am
4:30 am
welcome back, everybody. our team joining us this morning. bret o'donnell is a presidential campaign debate adviser. roland martin is the host of "washington watch with rowland martin," and will cain is with us. everybody tired from staying up late and watching the debate? >> nope, ready to roll. >> i appreciate that. there were lots of numbers tossed around during the presidential debate. john berman's got a little list of us what was true, what was not quite true, and what was out and out false. >> let's look at one of the big ones. the issue of tax cuts. we knew this was going toe a big issue and it dominated the debate. president obama went on the attack, saying mitt romney is pushing a huge tax cut for the
4:31 am
rich. >> governor romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the extension of the bush tax cuts, that's another $1 trillion. and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn't asked more. >> let's look at the facts here. mitt romney does propose an across the board 20% tax cut and the nonpartisan tax policy center says under that plan, taxes on the wealthiest americans would be reduced by $5 trillion initially. but mitt romney says he would offset these cuts by closing some loopholes and reducing deductions and this would reduce the tax cut on the wealthy. so if mitt romney follows through that, obama's claim that romney would cut the wealthy's taxes by $5 trillion is false. but stay tuned. because romney was asked time and time again how he would pay for his tax cut. let's listen. >> my number one principle is, there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. i won't put in place a tax cut
4:32 am
that adds to the deficit. that's part one. so there's no economist can say, mitt romney's tax plan adds $5 trillion if i say i will not add to the deficit with my tax plan. my plan is not to put in place any tax cut that will add to the deficit. >> the problem is, all we have here is his word, because mitt romney has not really laid out any specifics for how he would pay for his tax cut. all he says is closing loopholes or reducing deductions, but the verdict is incomplete. and there was one subject we thought may have been a missed opportunity for barack obama. medicare, a big topic of discussion for some time. mitt romney made the claim like he has repeatedly that president obama is looking to make cuts that affect people in the program today. >> what asupport is no change for current retirees and near retirees to medicare and the president supports taking $716 billion out of that program. >> and mitt romney also said, flat-out, that president obama
4:33 am
wants to cut $716 billion from medicare. this one's been checked and checked again. what president obama has proposed are not cuts to medicare. medicare will still grow. it will just grow more slowly. a reduction in growth of $716 billion, but also, that money is coming from insurers and providers, not beneficiaries here. so the verdict here, with the language mitt romney uses, is simply that statement is false. >> you know what's interesting? you didn't really hear that in the debate, right? normally, or in past debates, someone will say, that's just not true. or even the moderator will step in and call out and reframe a question, and some of that was the format, but also, there was just a lackluster energy or lack of energy in the debate. >> the president didn't want to take anything to mitt romney. he let him stay on offense the entire night. it was almost like the president went in, you know, you watch a team get up in football, and then they go into the prevent defense. and i've always said, that's a terrible thing. because that doesn't prevent anything. and the team ends up losing and that's what happened last night.
4:34 am
>> i think there were moments when there was an attempt to challenge, but they didn't seem heartfelt. it didn't seem like the president was all in on the challenge. john, i think your fact check is very fair, specifically on mitt romney's tax claims. it's not misleading. the tax policy center analysis simply is old. they make many assumptions and since then, they've revisited many of those assumptions and said, our analysis is incomplete. so president obama could -- >> but some of the reason it's incomplete, right, is because -- >> because we don't know mitt romney's assumptions -- >> and because the plan is sort of like, and things are going to grow, and if you have more people paying taxes, it grows. >> that's why it's very fair. we don't know mitt romney's assumptions. but the president, i don't know why, didn't ask about that. >> when you look at some of the other issues, mitt romney stands there and talks about dodd/frank and the banks being too big to fail. i was waiting for the president to say, mitt romney, do you support reinstating glass-steagall? i do, your vice presidential
4:35 am
pick does? so will that make the banks smaller? so, again, in a debate, you can't depend on jim lehrer to do your job. as we say in a fight, baby, if you're going to swing, swing. >> is that what we say in a fight? >> right. when it's time to fight, you've got to swing. >> the president didn't even have his gloves on last night. it's almost like he didn't know the facts -- he didn't know to make the glass-steagall argument. >> actually, he does know facts, but it's a question of whether or not you want to engage in that way. he has to, and i think this morning, he realizes it. >> guess what, we have 90 more minutes to talk about all of this. still ahead this morning on "starting point," a big burning question during the debate was about the size of government. is a theme that kentucky senator rand paul likes to talk about. he's got a new book out called "government bullies." he'll join us to talk about that, coming up next. a mattress. a sausage link. mermaid. honey!? driftwood. come on, you gotta help us out here a little. [ male announcer ] febreze eliminates odors and leaves carpets fresh.
4:36 am
♪ [ male announcer ] febreze. eliminates odors and leaves carpets fresh. ♪ starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately. but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help.
4:37 am
making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.
4:38 am
4:39 am
welcome back to "starting point." mitt romney and president obama resumed their attacks this morning from the campaign trail. cnn's dan lothian is live for us in denver with some white house reaction to the debate last night. good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning. first of all, what you're hearing from the obama campaign is that a mission that in fact governor romney did have a strong performance last night, but they're going after the substance, pointing to what they say are flaws and distortions in his policies, and overall, they don't believe that the performance by the president last night and the performance by governor romney will in any way shift this race dramatically. we'll have to wait and see. i mean, we'll be watching in key battleground states like ohio or even here in colorado, taking a look at the polling over the coming days to see if, in fact, things will change. but the bottom line for the campaign is they believe that the president came in here and did what he set out to do, which is to have a conversation with the american people. the problem for the campaign is that governor romney came in
4:40 am
here to have more than a conversation. he challenged the president. he did not back down. and according to that poll, that cnn/orc poll, most voters believe that, in fact, he did win last night, soledad. >> dan lothian, thanks, dan. i want to get to senator rand paul, a republican from kentucky who's supporting mitt romney. he has a new book out. it's called "government bullies: how everyday americans are being harassed, abused, and imprisoned by the feds." i was almost afraid to open it when i started reading it. >> it's good. >> let's talk about the debate. you had the option of watching the yankees or watching the debate and you chose -- >> what i can tell you for certain is the yankees kicked butt last night. >> and if you look at the poll numbers, some people would say, governor romney as well. >> governor romney didn't need me last night. i have seen some of the highlights and i was pretty impressed with his performance. >> we heard dan lothian talking about the white house spin. they said, it's not going to
4:41 am
shift the race dramatically. do you agree that sort of one-night performance in a debate, to play it up as being a game changer is not correct? >> well about 90 to 95% of americans have decided, there's about 5% less, so nothing really changes dramatically. so you're trying to shift the 4, 5, 6, 7% of the vote that might shift at this point. i think most everybody else is pretty much going to set on where they're going to do. so you are shooting for a small amount of people, some in the middle. but interestingly, people are always talking about the middle, there are people on both extremes. when ralph nader takes votes, libertarians take votes. they need to be worried about people on either side of the spectrum as well. it's still a pretty small number. >> senator, i watch you every day on capitol hill trying to get people to give specifics about what they're going to really do to reduce the deficit. and mitt romney is not giving specifics on what he's going to do, specifically, forming tax
4:42 am
code. does he need to do that? do a better job of that? >> in his defense, what i would say is tax code is enormously complicated, so you do have to talk somewhat in generalities. he wants to make the rates lower, he wants to make the tax code simpler, and he is for having less deductions or cuts. but what i would say both of them missed last night this, when everybody's like, can you pay for it, will you add to the debt, he has a general philosophy that he's not going to add to the debt with tax cuts. but another way not to add to the debt, why not cut spending? >> let's dig into that a little bit more. you would say, you wouldn't vote for any plan, a republican or a democratic plan that doesn't balance the budget. and what you're certainly, in that specific example, we're nowhere close to enough of a definite plan to be able to -- >> but it will be hashed out over many months. tax reform will be an enormous bill and an enormous package. and i will say, when i'm part of the process, i'm not going to vote for it if it adds trillions of dollars to the deficit.
4:43 am
but there are a couple of ways to do it. you can get rid of deductions, and i am for getting rid of deductions. and if there are not deductions, and you say it's a good idea to spur the economy, when the economy grew 5 and 6% under reagan, it's because we did significant tax reductions of the upper class. we went from a tax rate of 70 when reagan came in to 50, and we went from 50 to 28 and the economy grew like gangbusters. that's what we need again. >> senator, last night obama reminded romney of what he said in the debates. he said, if you have ten cuts for one revenue increase, you still wouldn't support that. isn't that part of the problem, when you have republicans who say, i won't support any type of revenue increase and wow won't even accept any cuts? that makes no sense. >> well, i think everybody says there has to be some sort of compromise. and the narrative is that we won't compromise. i think we actually do compromise all the time. we compromise to raise military spending and to raise domestic
4:44 am
welfare spending. what i would say is the compromise is not to raise taxes, the compromise is reduce military spending and reduce domestic spending. i think i've got some work even on my side on that. but i think the american public's ready for it. >> the book is a series of stories of how people were, in many cases, like horribly maltreated by certain government entities and you rage against tsa and against the fda and the epa. so when you look at the governor romney and you look at president obama, you have taken exception to some of governor romn's plans. you have taken exception to the president east plans. who do you think, you know, supports what you would say in this book? >> when i think of what's going on right now, i think of the great depression. i don't think it's as bad as the great depression, but i think it could be. the great depression got worse and then it stabilized and then it got worse for another five or six years. the reason it got worse, and this is from amity sclais, "the forgotten man," a book about the
4:45 am
great depression, she says that government forgot and the depression got worse and worse and worse. we've got to understand those are bad policies. but i think businesses right now are terrified of the president. so my book is about regulations, but i think it makes a big difference whether or not you have a president simply who is friendly to business, in a way that he encourages business to invest. and businessmen across the country are terrified. >> some people would say a bailout of the auto industry was friendly to business. a bailout of the banks was friendly to business -- >> friendly to failed businesses. businesses that should have gone under new ownership. >> i want to ask senator paul one question. you point out during the reagan years that tax rates were lower. but by lowering taxes on low-income earners, you help the economy. did it bother you last night to hear mitt romney talk about the middle class, i don't want to lower taxes on the higher
4:46 am
income. >> i think everybody makes mistakes in that, who pays the tax isn't so much important. it's where the money goes. should the mon stay with the people who earned it or should it stay in the state of ohio or should it go to washington? where is money most efficiently spent? and can you recover an economy by hiring more government workers? can you hire 100,000 government workers and say, oh, we're going to be better? someone has to pay for their salaries. government workers aren't bad people -- >> like class division? does that bother you? >> it always does. i live in bowling green, kentucky. should you leave the money in bowling green, kentucky, or send it to washington? and friedman said, nobody spends somebody else's money as well as they spend their own. so leave it with the people whose money it really is, and the economy will grow again. that's what we need. >> senator rand paul, the book is called "government bullies: how everyday americans are being harassed, abused, and imprisoned by the fed" nice to have you with us. appreciate your time. still ahead on "starting
4:47 am
point," a deadly meningitis outbreak now spreads. how people and states are now infected and where the whole thing began. and we told you about this yesterday, a news anchor who was told in an e-mail she was a bad role model because she was fat. we'll talk to her, jennifer livington, in our next hour, when she decided to take on her bully on live tv. that's in a moment. stay with us. these fellas used capital one venture miles for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use... but mr. single miles can't join his friends because he's getting hit with blackouts. shame on you.
4:48 am
now he's stuck in a miniature nightmare. oh, thank you. but, with the capital one venture card... you can fly any airline, any flight, any time. double miles you can actually use. what's in your wallet? alec jr? it was a gift. alec jr? one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know.
4:49 am
we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again.
4:50 am
welcome back, everybody. a deadly meningitis outbreak has spread to five states. now dozens are infected. it's all believed to have stemmed from a steroid injection to the spine, which was contaminated with a fungus.
4:51 am
cnn medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has the latest for us. this is horrible sounding. >> it absolutely is. i think there's a lot of confusion here, soledad. this disease is not, in this case, contagious. it's not spreading person to person. everyone who is sick had an injection into their spine for back pain and it seems that that drug was infected with fungus. that's how they got meningitis, which is an flainflammation of lining of the brain and nervous system. terrible disease. very difficult to treat. the drugs we do have have toxic side effects. this has a relative ly high mortality rate. soledad, what makes this even worse is these people didn't just breathe in fungus, which is usually the cause of this disease. it was injected directly into their central nervous system which makes it even harder to treat. >> oh, my gosh. so the investigation, obviously, must turn to how the contamination happened with that injection and how it was able to
4:52 am
spread across all these states. >> right. this one company in massachusetts, new england compounding company, they have recalled, voluntarily recalled three lots of this drug. so the investigation will center there. you want to know what happened in the manufacturing system that the fungus got in there. >> what happens now to those folks that are infected now that they know it's an injection, they have sort of an idea of where it's coming from, are they in better shape and have a better possibility of survival than, obviously, all those folks who died? >> right. first thing with this kind of disease, you want to catch it as early as possible. now if someone has a headache and fever and they go to the doctor, the doctor should know to ask, did you just have an epidural injection? maybe that's what's going on here. that's an important piece of information. and what they do is they treat it with iv anti-fungal medications as well as oral medications but these drugs can take a long time to work.
4:53 am
this isn't sort of a take two aspirin and call me in the morning kind of thing. it takes a long time to treat. >> elizabeth cohen with an update on that story we've been following for a couple of days. thank you. appreciate it.
4:54 am
mike rowe here at a ford dealer with a little q&a for fiona. tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. buy four select tires, get a $60 rebate. use the ford service credit credit card, get $60 more. that's up to $120. where did you get that sweater vest? your ford dealer.
4:55 am
4:56 am
welcome back to "starting point." the fbi is not confirming reports that mexican troops arrested two men suspected in the deadly shooting of a u.s. border patrol agent in arizona. nicholas ivie was shot and killed while responding to a sensor. suing for the right to decorate their homes for halloween. the suit was filed on behalf of simi valley on the behalf of
4:57 am
five sex offenders that wants to do aaway with the ordinance to keep them from decorating or giving out treats. >> that's an interesting conundrum, isn't it? obviously you don't want some kind of convicted sex offender to have children around their home and yet i wonder if not decorating their home is infringing on some rights. jennifer livingston got an e-mail from a viewer who attacked her weight, said she was fat. she fought back live on tv. we'll talk to her this morning about what pushed her to do what she did. insight analysis of the first presidential debate. president obama's traveling secretary will be joining us along with arizona secretary -- secretary. senator john mccain. i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot!
4:58 am
but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh. (cries) a machine can't give you what a person can. that's why ally has knowledgeable people there for you, night and day. ally bank. your money needs an ally.
4:59 am
but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose.
5:00 am
thanks. that's the cold truth! you're not using too much are you, hon? ♪ nope. [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is so soft you'll have to remind your family they can use less. charmin ultra soft is made with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. plus you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. don't worry, there's plenty left for you dad. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft? our "starting point" game
5:01 am
on. president obama and mitt romney go toe to toe in the first presidential debate. the verdict is in. >> average person making 3 million buck sincere getting a $250,000 tax break. >> virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate. >> obama stumbles. >> last point i can make -- >> your ten minutes it up. >> i had five seconds before you interrupted me. >> you are entitled to your own plane, your own house but not your own facts. >> the american people have to ask themselves is the reason that governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? >> what we're seeing right now is, in my view, a trickle-down government approach which has government thinking it can do a better job than free people pursuing their dreams and it's not working. >> it's thursday, october 4th. "starting point" begins right now.
5:02 am
welcome, everybody. our team this morning to talk about last night's debate, brett o'donnell is with us, presidential campaign debate adviser extraordinaire, i'll add that on the end there and roland martin is host of washington watch aired on tv one, of course. you can't help yourself. >> got to have an interesting intro. >> it's already starting. >> and will cain from blaze.com. and dana bash, also extrrordinaire. >> i don't feel special. >> you are specially extrordinair extrordinaire. >> issues by -- by most accounts
5:03 am
it was mitt romney who was the clear winner. john mccain of arizona is coming up to talk with us also obama campaign spokeswoman jen psaki will be joining us and austan goolsbee will be talking with us as well. for most nights it was mitt romney who was the aggressor. for offense, the president took a page out of the struggling new york ms playbook. it was not a strong defense by anybody's -- >> the best offense is not a good defense. >> i'm taking back your extraordinnaire. >> oh, smack! >> 67% said romney won only 25% thought the president won. dana, some highlights and low lights for us? >> i want to play a couple of sound bite that is really encapsulate what both men actually did right last night.
5:04 am
first of all, on mitt romney, he really was aggressive but went after president obama on the whole idea of doing health care instead of jobs. also trying to move his way back to the middle after being so far to the right during the primaries. take a listen. >> i just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table and spent his energy and passion for two years for fighting for obama care instead of fighting for jobs for the american people. it has killed jobs. the best course for health care is to do what we did in my state, craft a plan at the state level that fits the needs of the state and then let's focus on getting the costs down for people. >> mitt romney talking, once again, about his health care plan in massachusetts, which he shied away from big time for months and months when he was running against fellow republicans.
5:05 am
let's look at president obama. he, for the most part, was not very aggressive, to say the least, when it came to challenging governor romney on some of the specific but there was a moment where he tried on the issue of health care and on the issue of his economic plan. watch this. >> he says that he's going to close deductions and loopholes for his tax plan. that's how it's going to be paid for. but we don't know the details. he says that he's going to, uh, replace dodd-frank, wall street reform. we don't know exactly which ones. he won't tell us. now he says he's going to replace obamacare and assure that all the good things that are in it are going to be in there and you don't have to worry. and at some point, i think the american people have to ask themselves, is the reason that governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? >> now a big part of debate prep
5:06 am
and of getting ready for this -- in fact, brett, i talked to you about this before the debate itself, because you helped governor romney during the primaries. it's not just what you say but also what you don't say and maybe even most importantly, as you said, is the body language you have. >> how you say it. >> how you say it or don't say it. and the fact that president obama looked like he would rather be fishing or doing something else, that was the overwhelming impression that everybody got, especially to contrast that with mitt romney, who came to play. >> there's performance that i think people are measuring and that's why mitt romney certainly gets high points for performance but there's also a measure of substantive, bringing your game to actually have a debate and i think mitt romney clearly also, on that measure, was way ahead. >> brett is the debate coach but ronald reagan's media adviser said when you're dealing with television, make no mistake, debates are television, it's 85,
5:07 am
10/5. 85% of what you say, and 5% how you look. do you agree with that? >> i do. he was directing his comments right at president obama. and the president kept looking down. the more the debate went on, the more he looked down. >> the spin started immediately, right, in the spin room right after the debate. >> during the debate. >> tweeting during the debate. jen psaki is the traveling press secretary for the obama campaign. >> good morning. >> good morning. we heard stephanie cutter, who was spinning, talking with jessica yellin last night. she said this. i want to play a little chunk of that. >> my plan is not to put in place any tax cut that will add to the deficit. that's point one. >> i'm just going to read it to you. sorry, jen. let me read it to you. stephanie said this when she came out to the spin room. she said, yes, mitt romney, he absolutely wins the preparation. he wins the style points.
5:08 am
that's what's not dogging his campaign. if you actually look at the polls you can see the polls when you ask people who won, 67% think it was mitt romney who won. you can't tell me that that was just a judgment on preparation and on style. some of that has to be winning on substance, right? >> well, look, i don't think the american people make a judgment on who they're going to vote for by an instant poll coming out of a debate. they're not looking for an attacker in chief, which is what mitt romney was last night. they're looking for a commander in chief and the president's calm, delivered performance and him laying out his policies and where he wanted to move the country forward, when people are talking about it in florida and ohio and iowa this morning, that's what they'll be focused on. >> people may not say attacker in chief but may say somebody who did not grab opportunities that were presented and given to him. first, there was no mention of the 47%. that had been a conversation. all these things that were actually in your own campaign's
5:09 am
ads, frankly, i was surprised they weren't brought up at any point. bain capital, that could have been an area for conversation, wasn't brought up. didn't respond to that $716 billion gutting of medicare, a number that has been debunked. governor romney brought that up. didn't talk about taxes. didn't talk about immigration. i was surprised about all of that. why was that missing? why not? >> well, look, the president didn't go into the debate last night with a checklist of attack lines that he wanted to deliver on. and coming out of the debate, i think what people will remember as we talk about this over the next couple of days is that mitt romney doubled down on a number of policies that have hurt his campaign. and coming out of it, we still didn't hear details. that's what i think the american people were looking for from mitt romney as they were looking ahead to the debate last night. >> i'm going to disagree with you. i don't think what people will remember coming out of this debate is what you just laid
5:10 am
out. i think people will remember is that mitt romney seemed aggressive, in control. he seemed comfortable. he seemed energetic and the president seemed the opposite of all of those things. what went wrong? >> well, agree to disagree. i think mitt romney also -- you know, he had an opportunity to lay out details on his $5 trillion tax plan and instead he relied on, you know, a magic calculator with magic math. he came in, needing a game changing performance. >> some people would say that was it. honestly, jen, we were just having that conversation. >> will he be up by ten points in ohio? is he going to be leading in iowa? that's where the game changing performance means. >> i buy that's a long-term question. what jen says, and i think very bright lirks is being able to have good numbers among people who were polled immediately after, who watched the debate, does it actually have an impact -- does it translate to actual viewers in actual swi states? >> it absolutely does. what this does, it changes the
5:11 am
narrative. it puts -- sets a narrative in place over the next several weeks that governor romney is more adept at handling facts, that he's actually doing better on the likability scale than president obama is, that he is forward thinking about the debate. i absolutely do think it makes a big difference. >> i will say -- i don't think people will say he's more adept at handling facts because he was fact challenged on several things last night. but jen, the president -- you talk about a commander in chief. they also want someone to fight. and so when mitt romney is making his points and the president doesn't come back and say, mitt, do you support reinstating glass steigal, you're talking about corporate welfare. he muddied some of his arguments. when you're in a fight you actually have to fight. >> well, roland, you know the president pretty well and have covered him a long time. he did hold mitt romney accountable and really went after him on issues that people care about. that's lack of details on his
5:12 am
tax cut plan, voucherizing medicare. if you're a senior in florida, that's what you're thinking about this morning. i agree with you and have to go back at brett here on the facts question. mitt romney, i think, failed, got an f for delivery of facts. i think, you know, he was time and time again misleading the american people. when we go back through the transcript of last night, that's going to be a take away as well. >> which we've done. of course, some of those facts that we fact checked was true, mitt romney was make hg up or was untrue on some of his facts, if you will, but you didn't hear the president jump in and say that is incorrect, that is wrong. there was no energy on that. jen before i let you go, i have to ask you a question about the moderator. what did you think of jim lehreer as a moderator? >> i'm not going to get in here into evaluating the monitor. the president did what he needed to do, speak directly to the american people. we're going to evaluate this by what people at home were thinking and what people on their couch came away with.
5:13 am
and we think that, you know, mitt romney doubling down on his failed policies, voucherizing medicare, giving tax cuts to milli millionaires and billionaires and leaving the burned burden on the middle class -- >> next up, of course, is the battle of the number twos, vice president biden and congressman paul ryan will be facing off on october 11th in danville, kentucky, their only debate. october 16th is the second presidential debate. that will be moderated by our very own candy crowley in hampsted, long island. and third and final encounter between president obama and governor romney will take place on october 22nd and that is in boca ra tchton in florida. other stories are making news today. john berman has that for us. good morning again. >> thanks, soledad. syrian/turkish border, violence erupting again. there are reports that they have
5:14 am
authorized military action against other forces if necessary, include iing syri syria has offered its condolences but turkey says it has not received an explanation even though its government says they do not want to engage in a war. philadelphia cop seen punching a woman in a youtube video will be fired. lieutenant jonathan josey will be suspended for several days with intent to dismiss after serving that suspension. he punched this woman during the puerto rican day parade. this video has been viewed more than 1 million times. >> i guess someone threw water and he turned around and assumed it came from her and reached up and clocked her when really it was someone on the other side of her who did it. >> that video now seen 1 million times. >> what we tell our children. think before you clock.
5:15 am
>> think before you clock. go ahead, john. sorry. miggy is the man. miguel cabrera becoming the first player in baseball to win the triple crown in 45 years, one of baseball's rarest accomplishments. cabrera finished with a .333 average, 139 rbis, boston red sox great carl yastrzemski was the last player to do that. >> repeat that. >> the yankees clinch the division title. 13th time. >> 13g9 time, huh? >> oakland a's overcame a 13-game deficit in late june, have the american league west title, 12-5 victory. >> will cain not happy. >> playoffs start tomorrow. as if this wasn't painful
5:16 am
enough, it has been a painful season for boston manager bobby valentine, former manager hopefully soon. >> ooh! >> wow, john! >> valentien crashed his bike while riding in central park. he said he was check iing a tex from one of his players, dustin pedroia. i'm not making this up. there is speculation that valentine could be fired today. >> he is with the red sox, right? they were beaten by the yankees last night, right? >> jets and giants still terrible. knock off the baseball stuff. they kill me on baseball stuff, will. >> we are not turning -- up next, we'll continue to the conversation. >> fight, will, fight. >> about the candidates plans about the economy. former economic adviser to president obama, aaustan goolsbee will be joining us and then from team romney, senator john mccain will be joining us.
5:17 am
if we want to improve our schools... ...what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ...nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. [ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. ♪ got the coffee. that was fast. we're outta here. ♪
5:18 am
[ engine revs ] ♪
5:19 am
5:20 am
it was vice president joe biden who is kind of in the minority of people this morning who think president obama was the big winner in the debate last night. liste listen. >> if you just finished watching the debate like i did, i'm sure you're as proud of president obama as i am. i have been saying for a long time this election presents the starkest choice in my memory. the president did a wonderful job in making it clear just how stark that choice is. >> well, i think he's right about the election presents the starkest choice in his memory. polls, though, and pundits on both sides don't agree with the other parts of what he said. much of the debate focused on issues, much of the buzz was
5:21 am
that mitt romney came out strong while president obama was actually not strong. let's bring in the man who advised the president about the economy for years. austan goolsbee. nice to have you with us. the first interesting conversation, i thought, was this $5 trillion tax cut. let's play what the president said. let's play what mitt romney had as a rejoineder and then we'll discuss. >> calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the extension of the bush tax cuts. that's another trillion dollars and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn't asked for. >> my number one principle is that there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. i won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the did he haefici. that's part one. no economist can say that mitt romney's tax plan adds 5 trillion if i say i will not add to the deficit with my tax plan. my plan is not to put in place
5:22 am
any tax cut that will add to the deficit. >> walk me through how that could work. how could both of those two sound bites be true? can you cut $5 trillion, add tax cuts and make up enough money to make up that gap? >> i don't think so. at that moment in the debate, i thought mitt romney was trying to make news that he was saying, okay, look, if it actually adds up to 5 trillion, then i'm just going to scale it down rather than keep going ahead with the tax cut. i thought in some sense one of the weak spots there for the president was he didn't go after it more. and it kind of descended into this in the weeds discussion about scoring and different nonpartisan centers that had evaluated him. but i think fundamentally, that comes out of the debate as a substantive point that romney may end up regretting because they're going to go back and
5:23 am
say, now hold on. you specifically said you would cut this tax, this tax, this tax. >> a lot of promises. >> that add up to 5 trillion. how will you pay for that? i think that will linger a bit. >> if somebody asks him specifically what loop holes and deductions are you proposing to do away with? the president hasn't asked that question. no one has asked him that question. >> chris wallace has, actually. paul ryan. >> the bigger issue is that you can take every single deduction there is, abolish them all and that adds up to $5 trillion. >> no, i don't agree with you on that. the tax policy center you're referring to is incomplete and they've revised it since then. >> i'm not just referring to that analysis. >> governor romney did talk about how he would eliminate some deductions. he would have a bucket that he would fill up. >> what was he saying was in that bucket? let's make up a number. here is what the number is. >> he said it could be $50,000,
5:24 am
if you capped deductions at $50,000, you're not even in the ballpark of $5 trillion. >> it was not a specific what are the actual loop holes. i think that was part of the issue there. also we talk about the economic issues. he kept hitting the president on the $90 billion and said we could hire 2 million teachers when it came to environmental concerns. but the president never responded to it. not one time. >> used that figure twice, by the way. >> on that note, you know the president well, were one of his top advisers until like five minute minutes ago. what happened? where was he last night? >> he looked tired to me. i think a lot of people said that it felt like -- i don't know. you could see mitt romney had prepared, was crisp, was right on. this felt more like a guy who hasn't debated for four years, to me. it looked like he wasn't honed, he wasn't in fighting weight on those points. >> inexcusable on his prep team? the romney team didn't make it a secret that they've been
5:25 am
preparing. >> prepping all along. look, the thing is ultimately it's partly the fault of the prep team but the president's got -- it's difficult after four years, you know, you haven't debated. it's a different formaformat. he's got to do that. even on the clean energy stuff i think there what mitt romney was referring to was loan guarantees where obviously it doesn't cost $90 billion if the loan guarantee is on a $90 billion sized loan. it's only the loss rate times 90 billion. >> it wasn't just those particular companies. that's why he was wrong. >> so the president just didn't make that clear. and i think the bigger thing was the medicare charge. >> $716. we talked about that earlier. some of us were surprised. >> and it was usually piled on with three or four things at the same time. and so the president was kind of responding to the first two of
5:26 am
the list. but the fact that you got to the end and hadn't refuted that, i think, was -- romney looked strong and it seemed like the content, which is where the president was going to try to make up the difference, ended up getting muddled and kind of down in the the weeds and on a lot of facts the president was correct but it was so intricate that it was muddled. >> austan goolsbee, thank you very much. >> four years ago it was john mccain squarg off with president obama on the debate. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one.
5:27 am
5:28 am
5:29 am
5:30 am
welcome back, everybody. let's continue talking about last night's debate. acid, one cnn analyst, david gechlt rgen, said we have a horse race. president obama and mitt romney met on stage at the university of denver, shaking hands, exchanging pleasantries and then basically ripped into each other and their policies for the next 90 minutes. >> the president has a view very similar to the view he had four years ago, a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more, if you will, trickle-down government would work. that's not the right answer for america. >> at some point the american people have to ask themselves is the reason why governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? is it because that somehow middle class families are going to benefit too much from them? no. >> john mccain is a republican senator, former presidential candidate. he is the last person, in fact, to have debated the president. nice to see you, sir. thank you for being with us.
5:31 am
>> good morning. >> good morning to you. sunday you told candy crowley, don't expect any surprises. did you see any surprises last night? >> well, i was surprised at how well mitt did. and i think it was very important, because he came across as the person he really is as opposed to how he has been portrayed by hundreds of millions of dollars of attack ads and i was surprised frankly at the president's poor performance. four years ago, it was about hope and change. now it's about choice. and the president had a record to defend. and he didn't do a very good job at it. >> our polling shows that governor romney won the debate. this is a poll of people who just watched the debate. 67% picked mitt romney as win heing the debate, 25% picked the president as winning the debate. back when you debated senator obama at the time, he won the debate, 51% for then senator obama, 38% for you and, more importantly, the overall
5:32 am
election poll showed that he moved up in the polling three percentage points after that debate. do you see a similar bounce for governor romney? do you see a bigger bounce because the numbers, in some ways, are bigger? >> i do. and, again, it was all about hope and change and what the president was going to do. and he didn't have a record. he didn't have a record in the senate of much note. now he has a record of four years of the longest and deepest recession since the great depression. last night was so bad if it had been a fight, they would have stopped it. really one of the telling points, i thought, in the debate was when the question -- the last question about why don't people work together and sit down and work together, mitt made an argument that's what he had done in massachusetts and would do and the president basically said well, some people, you can't work with because the fact is, he has not reached across the aisle to work with republicans. and that's what americans want us to do, all of us.
5:33 am
>> that's, as you know, not exactly the paraphrase of what the president said. i'll let you go on from that. conservative columnist for "the new york times" was praising mitt romney's performance. he also said he wondered if mitt romney's mess-ups on the campaign trail were part of an elaborate rouse to put the president off guard. he also said this. influency is not the same thing as perfect honesty. romney has had his share of bogus lines, the promise to cut the deficit for cutting funding for pbs was the standout. and dubious arguments, the distinctions he drew between romneycare and obamacare were technically true but frequently misleading. and frank evasions of important issues, his various pivots to the center tellingly didn't include saying anything about how to help the uninsured. in terms of specific and details, he still has some problems. >> of course, i don't agree with that.
5:34 am
he gave a number of specifics. he gave a number of details. and the fact is that the american people want us to get out of this recession. they want us to work together. they want us to rely on the private sector as much as possible. he didn't mention the fact that the president had no response to the $761 billion taken out of medicare. i can prove that because it was my amendment on obamacare to put it back in that was defeated by the democrats. so, look, if columnists from "the new york times" who calls himself a conservative wants to say those things, fine. but even democrat observers talked about how the president was really not only not on his game but said things that were absolutely not factual. >> i'm sure everybody on both
5:35 am
sides are prepping very hard, you're right. fact checkers on both sides were very busy last night. just ask john berman, sitting next to me. that was his gig last night. you have debated president obama. do you think it's possible to -- that he can do a comeback? is it doable in what have you seen as someone who has prepped to be against him? >> i do, soledad. this president is very smart. he's very intelligent. he's an excellent speaker. i think he was fairly rsty. he has had four years, relatively unchallenged in the things that he has said. mitt went through a very tough primary, as we all know. i think that showed up last night. i would not underestimate the president of the united states in the next couple of debates and i don't think mitt will either. >> next debate is going to focus on foreign policy and our latest polling shows that president obama has an advantage there, 52% to 43% even after the crisis in libya that you and i have
5:36 am
spoken a lot about. what do you think governor romney, who you support, what do you think he has to do to make headway there? >> just point out the facts, that we're in retreat, withdrawal, iraq is unraveling, al qaeda is on the upswing every place in the middle east. this terrible stuff that's going on of afghans in uniform killing americans in uniform. all the president has done has announced withdrawals, withdrawals. we're leaving. he has overruled his military advisers and we find ourselves in a terribly difficult position throughout the middle east. the latest, of course, benghazi, repeated warnings that there were threats to the security of the consulate, which were obviously ignored and the president flies to las vegas. >> i assume the obama campaign is listening, taking notes on that and preparing for those kinds of questions. senator john mccain, thank you for your time this morning. >> thanks for having me on. >> you bet. what do the new jobless numbers say about the economy?
5:37 am
we'll take a look at those straight ahead. and she's not going to take it, wisconsin anchor defending herself on air after a viewer attacked her by e-mail for being overweight. her response, which we were all cheering yesterday, went viral. listen. >> if you are at home and you are talking about the fat news lady, guess what, your children are probably going to go to school and call someone fat. >> jennifer livingston, who is my hero and i love her, is going to come and talk to us, next. i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. these appliances could have been made here in america. but a company called global tech maximized profits by paying its workers next to nothing... under sweatshop conditions in china. when mitt romney led bain, they saw global tech as a good investment...
5:38 am
even knowing that the firm promoted its practice of exploiting... low-wage labor to its investors. mitt romney - tough on china? since when?
5:39 am
5:40 am
welcome back. this just in. those weekly jobless numbers are just in. alison kossic has those for us. >> rose 3,467. the job market continues to be
5:41 am
week. social networking site reaches 1 billion active users every month. ceo and founder mark zuckerberg said what it means for him personally when he talked to matt lauer of nbc. >> it's just this amazing honor, to be able to come into work every day and build things that help a billion people stay connected with the people they care about every month, it's just unbelievable. >> and shares of facebook right now, soledad, are up 1.5% possibly on that good news from mark zuckerberg. congrats to him. >> alison kosik for us. appreciate the update. on "starting point," coming up, we'll update you on that deadly meningitis outbreak. new information on that. and jennifer livingston, the tv anchor who basically took out a guy who was bullying her via e-mail about her weight, what she said went viral. she'll join us, up next. ♪
5:42 am
5:43 am
♪ hi dad. many years from now, when the subaru is theirs... hey. you missed a spot. ...i'll look back on this day and laugh. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. [ wife ] a beached whale! lawn clippings! a mattress. a sausage link. mermaid. honey!? driftwood. come on, you gotta help us out here a little. [ male announcer ] febreze eliminates odors and leaves carpets fresh. ♪ [ male announcer ] febreze. eliminates odors and leaves carpets fresh. ♪
5:44 am
5:45 am
welcome back to "starting point," everyone. the fbi is not confirming reports that mexican officials arrested two men suspected in the deadly shooting of a border patrol agent in arizona. nicholas l ichivie was shot and killed when responding to a trip signal. dozens of people are infected with meningitis. all of those have received steroid injections to their spines. it's believed the steroid was contaminated with a fungus. third day with no school in one suburban chicago community. talks were held last night. evergreen park, illinois,
5:46 am
teachers remain on strike. increased health insurance costs, decreased benefits are the main sticking points. and chicago approved a deal that put an end to their walkout last month. rush has been nominated for the first time after a major online push from fans. they've been eligible since 1998. also on the list, deep purple, one of the first british heavy metal bands, heart and the marvelettes. >> that's a good list. good lineup this year. still ahead on "starting point," fighting back. tv news anchorlasts a mean viewer who called her, e-mailed her, saying she was a bad role
5:47 am
model because she's fat. listen. >> listen to me right now. do not let your self worth be defined by bullies. >> and listen to me right now. do not mess with jennifer livingston. she will take you out on air. what she said sparked a frenzy. jennifer livingston will join us live, up next. you're watching "starting point." the world needs a broader mix of energies. that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go.
5:48 am
a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me
5:49 am
what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.
5:50 am
a local newswoman is being praised as an inspiration this morning after taking on a bully. her name is jennifer livingston, a morning anchor in wisconsin. she got an e-mail that called her obese and chas fiezed her for not being a suitable example
5:51 am
for this community's young people. sure surely you don't consider yourself a suitable example for this community's young people, girls in particular. obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. she tried to brush off the e-mail but her husband, a news anchor, posted the e-mail on his facebook page. >> to the person who wrote me that letter, do you think i don't know that, that your cruel words are pointing out something that i don't see? you don't know me. you are not a friend of mine. you are not a part of my family and you have admitted that you don't watch this show. so you know nothing about me, but what you see on the outside. and i am much more than a number on a scale. >> jennifer is in wisconsin and joins us by skype. thank you for joining us. when your husband decided to post this on facebook, did you support that? it was a cruel and nasty e-mail.
5:52 am
were you okay with his decision? >> i was. he asked me, of course. he said i'm so angered, i'm so mad. i can't believe people are just so cruel. and i just want to show an example to our community of what still, aas adults, people say to each other. and he wanted to basically make that an example of a lot of the different e-mails we get. that's about the most critical i've gotten, because it was so personal about me being a bad role model for young girls and i'm the mother of three girls but i did give him permission. >> your reaction on air, did you have to run that by your bosses? did you say i am going to take somebody out on tv today? >> i did talk to my boss. you know, it had been ongoing discussion since i got the e-mail on friday. and the response from viewers was so positive that she -- my news director trusted my judgment and she said, i fully support you in whatever you decide to do. and we made a choice not to use
5:53 am
his name on air, because i really -- it's not about him. i just feel like it's about this culture of critical thinkers. we all critique. why do you have to share it? why do you have to share it with people? >> let's name him anyway, jennifer. if i was jennifer, i would go ahead and name him. his name is kenneth krause, who is standing by had his e-mail. he went on to say this in his statement. you got a ton of support and tons of people tweeting and supporting you, famous people. your brother is a well-known actor, ron livingston. a lot of the people he, including other actors as well, came to your side. here is what kenneth krause, the evil e-mailer, said in his statement. i know, you're refined, a lady and i'm not. >> work it soledad. >> i hope she will finally take advantage of a rare and golden opportunity to influence the health and psychological well-being of coulee region children by transforming herself
5:54 am
for all her viewers to see over the next year. and to that end, i would be absolutely pleased to offer jennifer any advice or support she would be willing to accept. is there anything he could offer you that you would accept? >> well i hold no ill will toward him. i hope that people don't bully the bully. i don't want to make him an evil representation of the whole world. i just hope that at some point he will learn that he could have approached the topic in a much more kind way. he could have been a lot more gentle to say, i've noticed you've gained weight. i work out a lot. i would be willing to offer you some advice. you know, there's just so many other ways he could have approached it than saying you're a poor role model for children, obesity is a problem. i know obesity is a problem. trust me, i know that. i don't wish him any ill will. i don't really particularly want to reach out to him and ask him for help. >> well, i hold ill will all the
5:55 am
time, jennifer. i know. will cain, it's mean. jennifer is obviously a much better person than i am. jennifer, thank you for talking with us. yesterday we were absolutely cheering you. i love seeing somebody just get mad and taking out someone who is clearly a bully in the format that you had and the platform that you had. thank you for talking with us. >> thanks for having me. >> pleasure. got to take a break. great power. iconic design. exhilarating performance. [ race announcer ] audi once again has created le mans history! [ male announcer ] and once in a great while... all of the above. take your seat in the incomparable audi a8. the highest-ranked vehicle appeal among large premium cars by j.d. power and associates. ♪
5:56 am
email marketing from constant contact reaches people in a place they're checking every day -- their inbox.
5:57 am
and it gives you the tools to create custom emails that drive business. it's just one of the ways constant contact can help you grow your small business. sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact.com/try.
5:58 am
one of the big newsmakers was big bird from the debate last night. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i like pbs, i like big bird and actually like you, too, but i'm not going to continue to borrow money from china to pay for it. >> here is what she said about mitt romney's proposal to cut the funding to pbs. here is what she said. >> sesame workshop receives very, very little funding from
5:59 am
pbs. so we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, corporate underwriting and sponsorship. quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadcasting but when they taught out big bird and say we're going to kill big bird, that is misleading. sesame street will be here. >> big bird lives on? >> yes. >> it's brought out because, of course, it sticks in a debate, right? although my son was devastated when he heard that big bird might be -- >> no one is going to kill big bird. they're just talking about taking him off welfare. that's all. >> oh, geez. >> this was a moment of levity. it was a nice moment for mitt romney. it was funny. >> i think it is an element that sticks, right? the reason you raiset and you practice it is because that's why it became one of the most googled -- >> you work with mitt romney. there's no question he practiced that, right? >> i would think so. it

245 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on